Monthly Archive:: June 2010

The European Champions Spain went into this game as favourites, and yet again their was no place for the Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas. Spain dominated the play as Portugal’s Ronaldo was hardly noticed on the pitch, and David Villa’s winner came as no surprise to the watching fans as Spain outplayed Portugal all over the

1/ Gerrard and Lampard are incompatible. Both players are focal points for their clubs breaking from the midfield. But to operate successfully, they need disciplined, defensive midfielders to operate alongside or behind them (Makelele, Mikel, Essien for Chelsea, and Mascherano/Alonso for Liverpool). Whilst playing together, one essentially negates the influence of the other. When can

The Germany captain Michael Ballack may be missing the World Cup through injury, but he is still one of the biggest names in German football. He was released by Chelsea at the end of last season, and most of the Sports Betting Odds were saying that only a big club like Man Utd or AC

The Dutch team looked workmanlike in qualifying, but still won 3 out of 3. They had a hard last 16 game lined up against Slovakia, who had shocked the world by putting Italy on the plane home. Holland were happy to see their talismanic striker Arjen Robben back in the team, and he proved to

Chile were one of the surprises in the group stages, and it was thought that they may give Brazil a hard game in last nights Round of 16, but it proved a fruitless endeavour. Brazil were majestic as they bombarded the Chilean goal through the first hal. The first surprise was that their first goal

England had looked very unimpressive in the group stages, while Germany easily won their group, but for some crazy reason the English were favourites to win this game. They were destroyed! Okay they may go on about the goal that was disallowed, but they had conceded two goals in the first half-hour, and conceded another

Sout Korea have become a regular player in the World Cup Finals, but they have never beaten a South American side in the history of the competition. It was never going to be easy against a Uruguay team with both Luis Suarez, who has been linked with a move to Chelsea this summer, and the

The United States played their hearts out again but this time the last minute winner went against them. It didn’t look good when Ghana went 1-0 up after just five minutes and it was an uphill battle after that. There were lots of chances from both sides, but the States finally got the equaliser in

New Zealand were thought to be the whipping boys of this group, but they managed a third draw in a row. They may have been knocked out but they finished above the World Champions Italy and can go home as heroes. Paraguay ended up as group winners, but their coach Gerardo Martino was not happy

Japan only needed a draw to progress to the knockout rounds, but Denmark were favourites to go through despite needing all three points. The Danes were hoping to use their height advantage against the Japanese but the smaller defenders had no problem dealing with a very lacklustre Denmark side and the Danes had very few